April 14 Tokyo Concert Sold Out

Our friend, Yuki, said that the eplus.jp ticket site is showing the Libera concert for Saturday, April 14 is SOLD OUT! Congratulations to Libera and all the lucky fans who get to see them! :D  There are still tickets available for Friday, April 13. Please check availability here.

Singapore Promo Video 2

Libera has now released a second, longer promo video for the Singapore concerts! Sooo many more cute and funny scenes! Thank you, Libera!

Singapore Promo Video

Oh my goodness! What a great thing to wake up to on a Monday morning! Libera and the Libera (Singapore) Facebook page have released a promo video for the Singapore concerts!

They have also announced that there WILL be Meet & Greet sessions after the concerts!!! That will be so exciting for all the new fans they'll be making! :D

The Libera Singapore concerts have been accepted into Singapore's National Arts Council Arts Education Programme. This means the government will pay for up to 50% (excluding GST) of the ticket price. This applies to Primary, Secondary, Junior College, Centralised Institute and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) levels. Wouldn't a Libera concert be the best school field trip ever?!!!

Now back to the video. Libera surprises us with lots of video clips we haven't seen before. A lot of them are from the Philippines concerts last October! And a few are from the US Summer Tour, too!

After one of Ralph's solos at Manila concert.

I remember Jude saying, "I'm Jude, and I'm new!"

He's not so new anymore! He looks so grown up now. :D

Is Isaac singing a solo here? Is this "Himig ng Pasko" or a rehearsal?

Holy cow! Is it me or is this from Philippines 2009?!

Love this picture!!! Carlos, Eoghan & Josh walking in - Manila M&G 2011.

Carlos is smiling, Barney is funny, Josh is making the face I always make for the camera! lol

Eoghan hamming it up for the camera! :D

Manila mall M&G

Hey, fans! Do you see yourself?! :D

Wow! This is from the US 2011 Tour! The US flag

 is a dead giveaway. Ha! And I see Orlando! :D

From the Houston concert in 2011! I was there! :D

Stefan soloing in Manila. "White Christmas," maybe?

Thanks for the great video, Libera! :D

Oliver Putland Letter #2

Oliver Putland was a chorister and soloist in Angel Voices (Libera's old name) from 1987-1993. I've written about him before here. I sent him a copy of the article, and he wrote back to me to clarify some parts. Well, I'm really bad about checking my e-mail or my YouTube messages. So yesterday I checked YouTube, and I got another letter from Oliver Putland! I had written to him to ask what he thought about the new "Best of Angel Voices" compilation CD since he solos on it a lot. I also asked him if he can identify any of the boys on the cover and why he's not in the cover photo. Here's what he wrote,

Hello there, again. Sorry it took me such a long time to get back to you, but I have been very busy lately with extensive redecorating and all sorts of things!

That photo was on the original cd cover (before the dove wing one) so I guess they want to reuse it. I have to say, considering there was a fair write up about me inside the original cd, it does seem a bit eccentric that I wasn't included in the front photo. But to be honest, it was always a group effort anyway, and I didn't even expect the write up about me at all! I suspect I was busy recording some solo thing while the photo was being taken!

My memory with names is awful, but you're right about the ones you have so far.

In front of Daren is Glenn I think. The tall one at the back was Brendon. The one on the far left was Ben. The one directly above Anthony was Luke. It's there that my crap memory ends. I recognise the faces. I know their personalities, voices, and times we shared as a group together (don't ask me about that, that's for them to say not me) but I can't remember their names, sorry.

Thanks for the interest anyway. It's nice to know that what we did all those years ago still is appreciated.

Lots of luck,

Oli

Thanks so much for writing back, Oli! We now know 6 of the 14 boys in the picture and why Oli isn't in it. :)

I also realized that I never printed Oli's first letter to me. It's very funny and interesting. He tells what it was like to be in Angel Voices. It sounds very different from what Libera is like now. Here's what he wrote -

Hello there, Lexi. Hope all is well in Chicago.

Sorry I didn't get back to you quite as quickly as I would have liked, but busy busy busy!

It's funny you talking about my singing all those years ago as it seems like another existence altogether. Like some film one remembers watching, it was so long ago.

Thanks for the flattering comments, there. Always nice to hear people's reactions to anything I've done.

Libera- or Angel Voices as it was called in my day (Bloody hell- 'in my day', it makes it sound ancient!) has really blossomed into quite a big thing now hasn't it? I remember it was one of the most exciting experiences of my life, both exhausting and exhilarating in equal measure and part of me can't quite comprehend that people are still talking about it at all, least of which people on the other side of the globe!

I started singing in St Philips Choir at around 1987-88, I must have been around 7 or 8.

My voice soared into the soprano heavens along with the rest of them for about 6 years until one day I was doing jumping jacks in gym class and my voice was unceremoniously jolted into the baritone, in which it still resides today.

When I first started, I was sorted into my house which was Purcell, the others being Attwood, Britten and Tallis- all named after illustrious British classical composers.

I can only assume that other Royal College of Music choirs were given similar houses to join to get a sense of public school style pride and competitiveness, vital to a young boy's education within the Church of England's infrastructure.

Contrary to what you may think, I wasn't very good at first.
Most of the time, if a TV show wanted the choir on it, I would be placed at the back or at worst, left out altogether.

This wasn't because I couldn't sing. On the contrary, I've always had perfect pitch and can hear a duff note in a choir of thousands. My problem was I couldn't keep still. In most of those appearances, we were required to appear like angelic monoliths, resolutely singing into a mystic ether of dry ice framed limbo. While all the others stood with a solemn gaze into the middle distance as if in saintly reverence, I jittered about like a grasshopper with the equally saintly reverence of St Vitus. It was only when I was about ten when my body finally calmed down and my volume increased that I became a viable option for Robert Prizeman (our Choirmaster) to put me more centre stage in his productions.

During that time, I did those two TV series you spoke of, but before then we were whisked up and down the UK in rather fun coach journeys, performing in strange, three act stage shows which involved a medley of random numbers, a comedy showcase and complete musical show-stopper.

These were honed, stalwart, never fail productions which always garnered a warm reception wherever we performed them, but I can't help misremembering the show as a weirdly entertaining mixture of something that Enya, Terry Gilliam and Tim Rice may have created in response to either several holy visions, or the consumption of heavily fermented communion wine.

I loved doing those shows and both series were also lots of fun to do, if hard work.

I've got loads of anecdotes, but I won't bore you with them all. I'm aware that even though I'm now in my early thirties, I can still easily sound like an old fart and I'm too excited about the potentia of the future to get wax lyrical of the past just yet. :-)

All my focus is on my film work now, which I've been steadily working towards as a career since I was about 12, so thanks very much for the mention of Foley Flip. The more publicity I can get for that stuff the better! Oh and thanks for the complements regarding the Website. I think it needs a few more changes to get what I want from it but I'm getting there!

I work for Aardman Animations now, the guys who make Wallace and Gromit. So still in the media biz though very much from the other side of the camera lens now- and very happy this side thank you!

Thanks very much for asking me about the article before printing it, I'm very flattered that you're doing it at all, and if you want to know more, I'll see what I can do. Busy-ness pending.

Take care, and good luck with the blog,

Oli
 

New Libera CD Coming in March

There is a new Libera album being released by EMI Japan on March 14, 2012! Thank you to Kazuyo for the Tower Records link. Currently it is only titled "Japan Commemorative Edition." The Rakuten web site also calls it "Tour Album 2012." There is no picture or song list available yet. It may be a special album just for Libera's Spring Tour 2012. People want to buy a CD of songs that they heard at the concert. The Christmas Album doesn't fit that. The Peace Album is great but 2 years old. Hopefully this new album will have 1 or 2 new songs on it. Hope to find out more information soon! :D

UPDATE: January 22

The CDJapan web site says that it is a "Greatest hits album release from Libera commemorating her concert in Japan in April 2011." I think they mean 2012 since Libera didn't get to visit Japan in 2011 as planned due to the earthquake and tsunami.  

Ben See's Music Video

This is a cool new video from Ben See. He is a former member of Libera who still works for and travels with Libera. Can you tell from the video who he is? ;)

The song is called "Moment.Sound.Blur." I really like that all parts of the music are made with his own voice! Whatever technology he is using, it lets him put his own voice on top of itself like that. He shows us all the layers that he's working with. It's a cappella with a twist! And his voice is so high! I love the part where he sings harmony with himself. Ben this is such a cool video and a chatchy song! "Don't blink or you'll miss it." Great job! Shout-out to your cameraman, too. :)

Ben See is a great stage name for Ben C. Hope to hear more new music soon. You can follow him on -

Facebook - www.facebook.com/BenSeeMusic
MySpace - www.myspace.com/ben.see
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/BenSeeMusic

The Loose Moose Show Outtakes

There is one thing that is sure to happen in any video that you make with you friends, and that is OUTTAKES!!! This happens in part because...well...you're doing it with your friends, so you're having a great time! As I said before, I'm impressed that they did a whole half-hour show! Each clip takes so long to do because of bloopers like these!

OK, so...it has officially been revealed who the two worst people to put together are. Alex and Josh! They apparently crack each other up waaaayyy too much! My best friend and I are like this. And the more you laugh in the first take, the more you laugh in the second take, because you start thinking about how funny the first take was...and yeah...it's all downhill from there. :)

I love the faces Josh starts making near the end when he's trying not to laugh.

The "Dressing incompetence" part is hysterical! I love how Josh fails to get the coat on Alex and then just kinda walks away WITH THE COAT like he totally didn't just do that. :) 

We move on to "Snooker incompetence" where the boys show off their mad snooker skills. lol For "Speaking incompetence" apparently Liam was making faces at Jonathan or something. I love him yelling off to the side at Liam, and then later yelling at all of them for laughing whenever he would mess up.

The random pizza guy outtakes are lol funny! How could you not crack up when you open the shower curtain and see Alex's face with that wig and hat getting a "drinky?"

Awesome pink flowered cup!

Does anyone else think that parts of these skits were ad-libbed? I think they had the basic plot down, but those lines just seemed to flow off the tops of their heads. When another character makes up something new and you find it funny, it's hard to keep a straight face.

Oh, the cars in the audio, that part was great! There's always those unforeseen things that happen, and you're like, come on, that would have been a great take! Mine usually involve kittens walking into the shot or knocking over the camera. lol.

The world's loudest scooter!

"Alex's sense of pulse" or just basic rhythm. May I suggest joining the percussion section of band? lol. And can I digress by noticing the added randomness of a doughnut maker in his room? And I think there's a little robot man by his bed post. lol.

Josh and Liam are apparently also a bad combo. The two of them just make each other laugh. I love how with each take it takes less and less time for Josh to start laughing. I am exactly like this! I'm always the one to laugh! :D 

Didn't take too long to start laughing.

A little sooner...

Wait for it...

Can't even get the door open. :D

The awkwardly long time Liam takes to fill the teacup is AWESOME! That part made me laugh so hard!

And I'm starting to notice a pattern. Who is the funniest one? You'd think that everyone else would be laughing AT Josh dressed as Mrs. Albert Smith. But HE'S the one always laughing! In most of these outtakes! Silly guy! :D

I love watching Liam's puzzled face the second time Josh starts in on his "how did you find it" answer! I also love how Josh was totally improvising the whole thing. :)

Wait...what?! There's iron bars there? :D

I feel as though I must give credit to whoever made the little animated ending! I love it!!! Great job, guys!